Page 10 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

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combining various functions and services stored in cloud.
Up to this point, superficially, we have only depicted the exponential increase in the capacity for measuring vast amounts of information sourced from our environment and ourselves. But as is well determined by the information theory, the increase in data is not directly proportional to the increase in knowledge. The data needs to be processed, crosschecked and understood. To the increase in volume should be added the increase in the velocity with which we can access it and the variability. These three ‘V’s are the dimensions attributed to the concept of Big Data.
In order to analyze all this, the capacity of both private and public machinery has increased notably in the last few years, both in size and speed. So how will it affect our culture?
Connected to an intelligent digital mesh
Eighteen years ago Kevin Ashton from the Institute of Technology in Massachusetts (MIT) coined the phrase Internet of Things to refer to the relation between Radio Frequency Identifi- cation Device (RFID) technology and Internet. Identification technology via radiofrequency allows for automatic recognition of any object, animal or person, thanks to the information stored in tags they carry. It is, among many things, the technology that is allowing compa- nies such as Zara to revolutionize their means of distribution and manufacture of clothes around the world.
Ashton describes in very precise terms the land- scape of current technology: “If we had com- puters that knew everything there was to know about things—using data they gathered without any help from us—we would be able to track and count everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss and cost. We would know when things needed
replacing, repairing or recalling, and whether they were fresh or past their best. The Internet of Things has the potential to change the world, just as the Internet did. Maybe even more so.”
And he defined the Internet of Things thus:
“It’s a global network infrastructure, linking physical and virtual objects through the exploitation of
data capture and communication capabilities.
This infrastructure includes existing and evolving Internet and network developments. It will offer specific object-identification, sensor and connec- tion capability as the basis for the development of independent cooperative services and applications.”
Almost 20 years after Ashton gave us this defini- tion, the innovation consultant Gartner believes that the human, artificial and digital worlds are increasingly interconnected and, according to his managing director David Cearley, “The con- tinuing digital business evolution exploits new digital models to align more closely the physical and digital worlds for employees, partners and customers.”
“Artificial Intelligence (AI) is filtering into practically every technology and with a clearly defined focus, to blend the virtual and real worlds.
Gartner talks about the concept of the intel- ligent digital mesh. It’s a mesh created by the increase in connections between groups of people, businesses, devices, content and services, that are also expanded and moved, and by the entwining of all these elements that are pro- ducing new digital models, business platforms and a rich intelligent set of services to support digital and physical business. It is intelligent because Artificial Intelligence (AI) is filtering into practically every technology and with a clearly defined focus, it can facilitate more dynamic, flexible and potentially autonomous and digital systems because it blends the virtual and real worlds to create an immersive digitally enhanced and connected environment.
THE NEW CONNECTED CITIES AND CULTURE · MARIO TASCÓN
Digital Trends in Culture